Bill to Limit Testing to Get House Vote Wednesday

A bill to limit repetitive testing and push up school start dates was rolled over for a third and final reading on Tuesday.

HB 7069 tackles a number of pressing issues in the state's education system, including scaling back testing in public schools. Teacher evaluations would also be impacted as a result of the legislation -- student performance on assessment tests would also be scaled back in evaluating teacher progress as a result of the legislation.

One of the bill's amendments in particular drew a great deal of support from educators statewide. The amendment, proposed by Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville, would have put a temporary pause on school grades for a year to allow schools, teachers and students adequate time to adjust to the state's new assessment test.

Under Jones' amendment, results from this year's test would be used as a baseline for further school grades, but the proposal ran into trouble last week during the House Education Committee and it was rejected by the committee.

The full House didn't end up being friendly to the amendment either -- it failed by a vote of 36-80.

The bill heads to the House floor at 10 a.m. Wednesday.